Saint Etienne - Just Friends (Amy Winehouse Cover) (2012)

Amy Winehouse tune given 'Tiger Bay' reworking.

The original's spartan Stax-y treatment is replaced by a spartan folk-dub re-rub in the vein of Saint Etienne's classic 'Tiger Bay' album. Sarah Cracknell hasn't got Amy Winehouse's voice, obviously, but the clear, simple approach works well with acoustic guitar and vibes. Sweet.

Download Saint Etienne 'Just Friends' (Amy Winehouse cover, Back to Back to Black, mp3) (Divshare)

Smoke Fairies - She Sells Sanctuary (Co-Op/V2, 2012)

Arresting take on The Cult's classic.

Smoke Fairies' recent album is a delightful thing. Intertwining vocals recalling Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny, angular drums recalling something more Post Rock-y.

This shuffling, sweeping version of The Cult's 'She Sells Sanctuary' is available on a bonus CD (from all good independent stores, etc).

The Cribs - Back To Black (Amy Winehouse Cover) (Q Magazine, 2012)

Surprisingly good cover by The Cribs.

Opening with some 'Baby Love' xylophone augmented by angry-sounding guitar clang, The Cribs deliver a moody, desolate cover of Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black' for music mag covermount.

Having never quite been taken in by The Cribs, this is a pleasant surprise. Phil Spector producing Babes In Toyland while Steve Albini abuses a guitar in the background.

Download The Cribs 'Back To Black' (Amy Winehouse cover mp3) (Divshare)

Codeine - Kitchen (Demo) (Numero Group, 2012)

Not-so-slow demo from the pioneering Codeine.

I am waiting with baited breath for my copy of the Codeine boxset so I can relive the slower-than-slow sounds of the groundbreaking Codeine.

Active for only a few years around the turn of the nineties, Codeine were the epitome of slowcore, glaciers forming in the space between the notes on tracks like 'Realize'. Some notable bands like Mogwai, Low, Slint and Red House Painters forming in those gaps too.

'Kitchen' is an acoustic guitar and vocal demo that whets the appetite for the box's bonus material.

Enjoy.

Download Codeine 'Kitchen (Demo)' (Slowcore, Post-Rock, Sub Pop, mp3) (via Stereogum)

New - Four Tet - 128 Harps (2012)

More refreshing newness from Four Tet

Four Tet has completely embraced music sharing mindset and unleashed a string of tracks straight onto Soundcloud over the last year or so.

'128 Harps' is the latest and it's a real treat, combining stuttering post-dubstep dancefloor action with liquid harp melodies. It somehow manages to combine chin-stroking, laid-back folktronica with sublime rhythmic dynamism.

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Drop Out Orchestra Rework) (2012)

Another tasty Drop Out Orchestra remix.

Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' given a gentle, rolling chilled House makeover.

Listening Post - Beach House - Bloom (Sub Pop/Bella Union, 2012)

More swirling loveliness from Beach House.

Beach House's 2010 album 'Teen Dream' was a duskily ethereal slow-burning classic. Soaring melodies amid the gentle ebb and flow of a million guitars refracted in a gauzy hall of mirrors. Superlative dreampop in the vein of Cocteau Twins and AR Kane and a cousin of beautiful Korallreven.

'Bloom' is evolution rather revolution, taking 'Teen Dream' as a starting point, adding more clarity in the vocals but more dreamy sheen in the music's candyfloss of sweet fogginess.

Listen to Beach House 'Bloom' in full (NPR.org)

New Music - Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dream Baby Dream (Smalltown Supersound, 2012)

An unexpected treat.

I have to say I wasn't expecting something as good as this. The Thing tone down the skronk and dial-down the energy to create a meandering cradle of gentle, sax-led jazzing. They mutate this Suicide song so it sounds like a lullaby written by Albert Ayler.

And over that Neneh Cherry - rather than busting rhymes about nasty girls sucking beer through straws (admittedly, that was twenty-odd years ago) - lets loose a soothing stream of the title's repetition.

The whole thing just builds and winds until it feels appropriate for the sax to cut loose with some gentle squall as a sweet trumpet anchors the track around the relentless, Jaki-Liebzeit-on-tranquilisers drumming. It reaches fever pitch before coming quietly to a stop.

A total f-ing triumph.

Neil Cowley Trio - Let's Go Away For A While (Beach Boys cover) (Mojo, 2012)

Yet another gem from the 'Pet Sounds Revisited' freebie.

It's obviously hard to ruin source material as amazing as 'Pet Sounds' but the Neil Cowley Trio turn this delicious instrumental into a gently post-rocking jazz masterpiece.

Waves of bright piano roll along over a twisty post-rock rhythm section, using the song's structure from some added tension-and-release dynamics.

Tasty.

Download Neil Cowley Trio - Let's Go Away For A While (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download, Mojo) (Divshare)

The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover) (Mojo, 2012)

More delights from the Mojo 'Pet Sounds Revisited' tribute.

Fractured, radio-broadcasts-in-space version of one of the most beautiful songs/records ever made.

Wayne Coyne coos the song as he floats, untethered through space, watching Earth float away from him.

Download The Flaming Lips - God Only Knows (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download) (Divshare)

Saint Etienne - Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys Cover) (Mojo, 2012)

Lushly-vocalled tribute to The Beach Boys.

Opening with a long, lush acapella section, this is a cooler, less exultant take on 'Pet Sounds' opening track.

Sections of a layered choir of Sarah Cracknell are interspersed with gentle, dreamy dub pop sections - reminiscent of One Dove - that coo you to sleep before a burst based around what sounds like the Harpsichord Rock setting on their Casio.

Download Saint Etienne 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' (Beach Boys cover, mp3 download) (Divshare)

New Music - Thula Borah - Live Secretly (Bandcamp, 2012)

Tasty, elongated Shoegazey Post Rock.

Glasgow's Thula Borah have an expansive, widescreen sound somewhere in the same realm as Slint, Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky or the classic post-Godspeed sounds of the Constellation label. However, across the tracks of this EP, they demonstrate a real mastery of dynamics and restraint.

'Murder' is a vast, surging slice of gently distorted post rock with occasional vocals in a Mark-Gardener-being-gently-tortured sort of way. Some really nice melodic guitar work and uses its eight minutes to good effect without outstaying its welcome.

The EP ranges from US alt-rock flavours (Drop Nineteens in the house) to the wonderfully edgy minimalism-blasting of '(Null Interface)' where the guitar interplay reminds me of Suede's 'The Asphalt World' played refracted through Mogwai's FX rack.

Well worth a listen.

More about Thula Borah at their Bandcamp.

New Music - Dive - How Long Have You Known (Captured Tracks, 2012)

Swooning, wobbly, shoegazedreampop loveliness.

Partying like it's 1990, Dive are serving up slice after slice of keening, swooning, woozy dreampop-type shoegaze business. After last year's 'Corvalis' single, they've just unleashed another gem in the form of 'How Long Have You Known' which precedes their debut album 'Oshin' in June.

Delightfully driving but wobbly at the same time with layer upon layer of melodic guitar. Nice one for fans of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the wonderful Wild Nothing and Blouse.

Or Revolver, The Field Mice or Moose, of course...

Download Dive - How Long Have You Known (indie, shoegaze, dreampop, mp3)

New Music - 2:54 – You’re Early (Wild Beasts Remix) (Fiction, 2012)

Stately, elegance with added Hayden Thorpe.

2:54, who have previously dealt in a wiry, post-Siouxsie and the Banshees gothic noir, have enlisted Wild Beasts to mix-up their new single.

It's a misty, almost funereal, procession with brooding, drifting strings and Wild Beasts' Hayden Thorpe adding his croon to the mix.

Memoryhouse - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (The Police go Shoegaze)

Classic Police chirpiness given Shoegaze makeover

Oddly, I was actually thinking of posting the original, which is a earworm that marries ponderous, slightly melancholy verses with a bright, sunsplash of a chorus. Bee-Oh-Oh.

Instead, I stumbled on this version that majors on the chord progression of the versions and maxes out the moodiness, remininscent of arch slowcorers Low. It rolls along on a massive reverbed-up semi-acoustic with rolling toms and sweet, simple female vocals, building with some plaintive organ and exploding into the chorus with a slapdash indie-rocking guitar before busting the old, backwards echo, mooding-up to a close.

Lovely stuff.

Download Memoryhouse - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Police cover, Shoegaze mp3) (Divshare)

New Music - Sigur Ros - Ekki Mukk (XL, 2012)

Radical change of departure for Icelandic moongazers.

Not really.

If anything, new album 'Valtari' promises to be even more minimal and beautiful than previous Sigur Ros outings.

'Valtari' apparently means "steamroller" which is perhaps the most inappropriate title ever, given that the first track to emerge -'Ekki Mukk' - is the sound of 10,000 angels blowing you a kiss goodnight under the Northern Lights.

The track opens with just an ooze of backwards ambience, evolving into a cradle of atmospherics and minimal strings, Jonsi cooing quietly so as not to distract. Beautifully restrained all the way through its eight minutes leaving you with just a sparse piano line.

Beach House - Myth (Sub Pop, 2012)

New dreamy loveliness from Beach House.

Very much picking up where the last album left off but a gorgeous swirl of 'Victorialand'-era Cocteau Twins loveliness nonetheless.

Download Beach House 'Myth' (Shoegaze, Dreampop mp3) (via Beach House website)

Four Tet & Burial - Nova (Text, 2012)

Rolling Deep House through a haze of urban cold. 

Another Four Tet and Burial collaboration. Maybe we can expect a full album?

Fuses dubstep bleakness with Deep House patter what sounds like Eastern atmospheric samples.

Think the Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence soundtrack remixed by Photek.

Very subdued but very intriguing. Soon come on Four Tet's Text label (TEXT013).

Four Tet & Burial 'Nova' (Text, Dubstep, Deep House, Electronica) (Soundcloud)

Listening Post: Peter Broderick - http://www.itstartshear.com (Bella Union, 2012)

New and beautiful from Peter Broderick.

How does he do it? From the opening piano chords, building through violin and, presumably using his trademark looping pedal action, more piano and violin, Peter Broderick magicks heart-stopping beauty from the simplest of ingredients.

The sound is in keeping with his 'Home' album rather than the more experimental side projects he's released of late. It's gorgeous, with flowing streams of guitar and/or piano, beautifully arranged and recorded.

Amusingly, for those who have ever been involved in a website project, it says "Coming Soon" at http://www.itstartshear.com.

He's better at music than websites then.

Anna Calvi - Desire (Live on Woman's Hour) (2012)

Live version of one the standouts from her 2011 debut album.

If I'm honest, I don't tend to look to Radio 4 or Woman's Hour for the latest from the UK alternative scene. However, in this case, they've come up with a nice, strident take on one of Anna Calvi's 2011 singles.

Maybe I'll tune in next week to see if they've got Cerebral Ballzy in session. Or maybe not.

Download Anna Calvi 'Desire (Live on Woman's Hour)' (alternative mp3) (Divshare)